Chapter Three: Finding the Truth

Nick rocked nervously on the chair while he waited for Wendy to process the results of the SAE kits from all three victims. He nervously bit his nails hoping there was some DNA that could lead them to the victim's killer. He had finally stopped thinking about Greg, trying to work on catching this killer before the parents of another young girl had to suffer.

"Nick." Wendy waved the results in front of his face. Nick climbed off the chair stumbling slightly as his legs had gone dead from how tensed up he was sitting. "DNA is the same in all three girls, but sorry the DNA's not on file."

"Damn it." He shouted, making Wendy jump as he clutched the results in his hands, hoping if he stared at it long enough he could somehow find out who this guy was, but it was pointless. Just a bunch of markers on the page weren't going to lead him to the serial rapist.

"Oh hold on." Wendy ran over to her computer as it blinked. "Ah ha we have his sister on file."

"Who is she?" Nick quickly ran over seeing the young girl aged 15 up on the computer.

"She was arrested once for disturbing the peace." Nick jotted down her school address. "That means its either Johnny Marius or Daniel Marius . . . they're the only brothers on file." Wendy said pulling up their details. "We don't have their DNA on file though sorry."

"I'll get a warrant." Nick pulled out his cell phone hitting Brass's speed dial as he ran out the lab. "Brass we got two possible matches to our serial rapist either a Johnny Marius or Daniel Marius. I'm going to talk to their sister Tamara at the school."

"Okay Nick I'll get the DA to issue a warrant for their DNA."

"Thanks Jim." Nick hung up bumping straight into Greg in the hall, causing him to topple over as the large jock was forced into his body. "Shit sorry." Greg quickly scrambled to his feet helping Nick collect up the files he had dropped everywhere. "You okay G?"

"Where's the fire Nicky?" Greg joked rubbing his elbow.

"Oh we got an ID on the serial rapist or possible ID anyway. Wonna come?" Greg nodded following Nick towards the elevator.

Nick and Greg flashed their badges pulling Tamara out of class. She was quite short for her age with long black wavy hair and dark blue eyes. She had a real attitude as well. They used the principal's office to talk to her about her brothers. She sat in the chair munching on her chewing gum avoiding eye contact. It appeared as though she was heading down the same path as her brothers, disobeying the law and a problem with authority figures, especially cops.

"Tamara just tell us where to find your brothers." Greg asked her. "We just need to know where they are that's all." Greg looked round hearing Nick's phone ringing.

"Stokes." He answered, fishing it from his jacket pocket.

"Yeah, Nick no luck finding Johnny or his brother Daniel, but we found one of their cars I'm having it toed back to the lab."

"Okay thanks Jim." Nick snapped his phone shut, shaking his head to Greg. "Just tell us where to find them."

"I haven't seen them in months." She snapped folding her arms across her chest. "And even if I had I wouldn't tell y'all." Nick held his head in frustration.

Usually this was the part where he'd grab the suspect ramming them up against the wall and shouting at them to get the answers he wanted, but he wasn't about to do that to a 15 year old girl with the principal still in the office.

"Tamara we're gonna have to take you down the station." Nick insisted hoping some time in a small room would break her.

Nick and Greg led her out to the Denali, driving her back to the station in complete silence until Nick finally broke the quiet. "I know you want to protect your brothers Tamara, but we have to protect young girls like you." He said looking in the rear view mirror at her. "I would do anythin to protect my brother or sisters, but I'd also want to protect the people they're hurtin."

"My brothers didn't do anything." She protested.

"If that's true it will show up in the DNA tests." Greg explained to her. "Three girls have died in one night; one of them was very special to me."

Nick felt a cold tingle rush up his spine as Greg said that. God I want him to feel that way about me so bad. He sighed continuing to drive towards the station. "See we only have your DNA on file, the DNA off these girls matched a few epiphyllous with you."

"What does that mean?" She asked.

"Well from parent to child there's 13 or more epiphyllous in common, any less and it's a brother, sister, cousin or something like that. See I used to work in the DNA lab before I started working in the field. So we just need your brothers DNA to clear them of the murders." He explained seeing she was starting to understand, what would truly clear her brothers, rather than her silence.

Nick pulled into the station escorting Tamara through to an empty interrogation room where Brass and Vartann were waiting.

"Nick." Vartann nodded.

Nick gave him a half smile. He didn't know what to say to a man that just lost his daughter. Usually it seemed so easy when he didn't know the parents or the victim.

"This Tamara?" Brass asked. Nick and Greg both nodded. Brass took her through to the interrogation room sitting her down. They had to contact her parents or social services before they could talk to her though. "Cath and Grissom are working on the car, I've got Archie looking through the brother's phone records and Sara managed to trace the family tree."

"Yeah and?" Greg asked curiously.

"Tamara is the youngest of 8 children." Brass informed them rolling his eyes. "All boys except her, we haven't found a record of a mother, but her father's serving time for 2 counts of atemptive rape."

"Guess crime runs in the family." Greg said looking in at Tamara. "So we have to track down these brothers then?"

"Yep we're working on their addresses now, we'll be bringing them all in, if you wonna get your kits ready for their DNA swabs." Brass told them then pulled out his cell phone, to check with Archie on the brother's addresses.

Vartann, Nick and Greg all stood outside watching Tamara in an awkward silence.

"Hey Vartann I never knew you were married or had kids." Greg queried. Nick lightly elbowed him for bringing that up.

"Oh yeah it didn't work out, it was a long time ago, we only had one daughter. The court favoured her after the divorce went through, so I only got to see my daughter at the weekends." They both watched as a tear rolled down Vartann's cheek.

"Wasn't she a little young to work as a chemist?" Greg asked. Seriously Greg would you shut up. Nick thought to himself as he elbowed him again.

"Yeah my ex pulled her out of school to support her drug habit." Vartann said rolling his eyes. "The court wouldn't give us a retrial though, so my daughter continued working there to support her mother's habit." Oh that's what she meant by support her family. Nick suddenly thought. "I keep expecting her to call." Vartann pulled out his phone looking at the screen. "We called each other about 4 times a day just to catch up . . . I rang her number a few times just to hear her voice on the voicemail." Vartann shoved his phone in his pocket then walked off towards the men's bathroom.

"Seriously Greg, what the hell did you do that for?" Nick asked sounding annoyed.

"I was just asking about his daughter." Greg defended.

"Excuse me one of you CSI Stokes?" A woman in a smart blue suit asked interrupting them.

"That's me Nick Stokes, this is Greg Sanders." He announced shaking her hand. Wow that was fast; usually they take hours to get here.

"Social services, Karen Watson, that Tamara Marius?" Nick nodded looking in the room. "Okay then you ready?" She asked them both. They nodded leading her into the room. "Hello Tamara I'm with social services Karen Watson, these CSI's need to ask you a few questions okay?" Tamara nodded watching as the three of them all sat down around the table.

"Okay Tamara remember what we discussed in the car about the DNA elimination?" Greg asked watching the young girl nod. "We need to know where we can find your brothers so we can exclude them from our investigation." Greg pulled a pad of paper out of his kit handing it to her along with a pen. "Either their addresses, work places or phone numbers will do for us."

"You think I remember all 7 phone numbers?" She asked getting a smile out of Nick.

"That's the same for me; I have 5 sisters and 1 brother. I find it hard enough to remember their birthdays let alone their phone numbers." He chuckled making her smile. Tamara picked up the pen writing her brothers names then the phone numbers she could remember beside their names.

"When you said you haven't seen your brothers in months did you mean all of them?" Greg asked. Tamara nodded writing down one of their addresses.

"I live with my aunt and uncle they never really come over anymore." She spun the pad round pushing it towards Greg. "That's all I can remember . . . Johnny and Lucas work at the same car garage though."

"Do you know which car garage?" Nick asked reading through what she had written.

"It's called Marius brothers; I've never been there so I don't know where it is." Nick nodded taking the pad out the room to show Brass.

"How long have you lived with your aunt and uncle for?" Greg asked curiously.

"2 years . . . since my dad went to prison."

"Where's your mom?" Greg asked.

"Died when I was little, I don't really remember her that well." Greg nodded feeling sorry for her. "So these girls that got hurt . . . who was the one very special to you?" She asked.

"Um... she was my girlfriend. Her name was Lauren, the second victim was Jamie just a kid herself . . . then the third was a woman named Casey I think she was 23 or something."

"I hope you find who hurt them."

"Me too." Greg agreed.

"There we go . . . we have Daniel, Lucas, Johnny, Richie and Marcus we can't find the other two Frankie and Benny." Brass looked up seeing Greg trying to stifle a laugh.

"Something funny Greg?" Grissom asked peering over his glasses, with a frown directed at the younger CSI. Greg shook his head still covering his mouth.

"Just they all sound like mob names." He chuckled making Catherine and Sara smile too. "Please continue." Greg insisted. Brass frowned at him then tried to concentrate on what he was saying.

"Wendy's almost done processin their DNA." Nick announced opening his phone to read the message. "We found the last two brothers yet?" He asked Brass. Brass checked his phone then shook his head. "Oh and your gonna love this, bit of a Marius family secret, Johnny is in fact Tamara's father and Lucas has a different father compared to the others."

"Huh." Catherine huffed. "Good old Vegas always with the complicated families." She said thinking of her own situation. How she never knew who her father was until he was a murder suspect.

"Got them." Wendy announced walking into the room. "No matches." Everyone huffed in frustration. It was like a rape case they handled a few years ago when they found out the original brother was in fact the killer he just had chimera DNA.

"Guess it's either Frankie or Benny then. I'll work on finding them. Tamara give you any more on where to find them?" Brass asked Nick heading for the door.

"No we're checking with her aunt and uncle too and Archie's runnin their phone records." Brass nodded heading out the room. "Should we get the uncle's DNA too? He may not even be their uncle." Nick suggested to Grissom.

"Sure that's a good idea; I'll get a warrant in case he won't cooperate." Grissom said pulling out his cell phone. "Oh and Nick coroner said you haven't been down to see him yet, he found something interesting." Grissom said as he headed out the door.

Nick rolled his eyes. He had been avoiding the coroner's office because he couldn't bare to see Jamie all cut up with her organs hanging out.

"I'll come with you." Sara said seeing the look on his face.

"Thanks Sara." They both walked off towards the elevator, not talking until the doors closed.

"So you talked to Greg yet?" She asked curiously.

"About what?"

"You knew what I meant so don't play dumb." Sara warned. "Do you really love him?" She asked. Nick looked at her sideways across the elevator then straight ahead at the metallic silver doors at his blurred reflection. "Well do you?"

"Every minute of every day." He replied seeing the shock on her face. Why did I say that? Nick quickly exited the elevator heading towards the coroner's office. "Doc you got somethin for me?"

"Ah Nick." He climbed to his feet adjusting his crutch in his arm, heading into the morgue pulling open one of the body trays. Nick prayed it wasn't Jamie's, but as the doc pulled it back he saw it was the third victim Casey. "Look at this." The doc raised her arm showing him a puncture wound. "We found no drugs in her system, but this is quite recent."

"So he must use a temporary drug to make them lie still while he..." Nick said looking at the young woman.

"That's what I thought. Hi Sara." The doc closed the tray then opened up another one revealing Lauren, Greg's x-girlfriend. This is the first time Nick had actually seen her and jealously swamped his body instantly. C'mon Nick she's dead, she won't come between you and Greg. Nick rolled his eyes as he was still talking to himself.

"Which ones this?" Sara asked.

"This is Lauren Spacey, the first victim." The doc showed them the exact same puncture wound in the same place. "Then we get to Jamie." He closed Laurens tray pulling open the last one. Nick shoved his hands in his pockets nervously biting his lip as the doc pulled back the sheet over her body. He could see the deep wounds where the doc had cut her open and it made him sick to his stomach. "This is young Jamie." The doc held up her arm. "There's no recent puncture wound."

"These all look old, think she was a user." Sara noted looking at the girls forearms.

"Her mom was." Nick nodded trying not to look at Jamie's face.

"She's also the only one with defensive wounds. He probably didn't have time to use whatever drug he was using." The doc pointed out.

"She was the only one that fought back?" Nick asked. The doc nodded showing Nick her hands. "What drugs was she on?"

"Unknown, these scars look old. I think she used to be a user. Vartann didn't know anything about it and nothing came back in tox." Sara looked up at Nick checking he was okay. "So Sara what brings you back?" The doc asked curiously.

"Oh the team needed me." She smiled seeing Nick nodding.

"Well it's good to have you back, hope you stay longer this time."

"Please." Nick agreed. Nick pulled the sheet back over Jamie not wanting to look at the incisions on her anymore. "So we're lookin to see if the brothers have any medical experiences in their past. Somethin that could knock someone out." He said seeing them both nod. "Okay." Nick turned to walk away hearing Sara following him.

"So why haven't you told him?"

"Who?" He asked getting into the elevator.

"Greg and you knew who I meant. Why haven't you told him you're crazy about him?"

"Hello coz I'm a guy." He said to her to make it clear. "He'd never love me."

"You won't know until you ask. I thought Grissom would never love me."

"Yeah . . . but that's different." He moaned waiting anxiously for his floor to arrive.

"How?"

"You know how it's different. You're a girl and Griss is a guy. I'm a guy and so is Greg. There's a big difference Sara."

"Love comes in all shapes, sizes and forms Nick. You should know that living in Vegas. Why'd you come here for starters anyway?" She asked curiously. Nick just stood in silence watching the numbers counting up to his floor. "I think Greg may be more into you then you realise Nick. He gave up his book tour to come back to check if you were okay after Warrick died, he was a wreck when you were kidnapped, seriously I had to give him a paper bag..."

"You don't know that he actually likes me that way." Nick interrupted.

"Maybe he does and he's just as afraid as you." As the doors opened Nick slipped right out knocking over poor Judy spilling her coffee all down her front.

"I'm so sorry Judy."

"I...it's okay." She said fanning her chest as the hot coffee singed her skin. God what is wrong with me, I've all of a sudden become accident prone. He scowled walking off up the hall while Sara helped Judy with her mishap.

Please Review

Thanks to Alex and Tish for Beta reading

Continue reading to find out more on the Nick/Greg relationship. I left you hanging on this chapter because I wanted to get a bit more of the case sorted out as its a vital part of the story.

I hope you didn't get bored